San Rafael Reef Loop Part 1


I’m dividing this into two parts because I have a lot of footage.

I went out and hiked a little loop of what I hope can someday be a larger loop encompassing the entire San Rafael Swell, and it was fucking incredible.  It was a modest 30 mile hike that I repeatedly wished could have been longer while I was out there, but given the lack of natural water sources there wasn’t much that could be done about it.  I started near Temple Mountain Road, went through Farnsworth Canyon, walked behind the reef along dirt roads, transitioned to a bit of cross country and just followed the back side of the reef until I hit Crack Canyon, then came back out near Goblin Valley and walked along the road back to my car.

This is the first time I’ve initiated a hike on a route I put together and it was a huge learning experience at times due to either natural or man made obstacles, there were times I wasn’t on my route at all and had to do things I didn’t quite anticipate, and it was the safest place to learn given a very large natural landmark in the form of massive canyon walls leading the way for me.  I have to admit, walking into areas where there’s no man-made way pointing you in the right direction can be intense, but it was so much fun.

Anyways pictures.

Driving up on the reef is just blows you away, they’re a really intense visual.


Day one was very forgiving and easy.  Day 2 not so much.


I hate splitting it up like this and sounding click-baity.  Transparency time:  I do videos mainly because I really enjoy the process.  I like filming and I like editing (most of the time), and I like sharing these places with other people because I think going outdoors and all that jazz is the best thing in the world for a lot of folks.  I am not now nor do I intend on making my videos a source of financial income, I find Youtube too unstable/constantly changing of a landscape to even consider it.  That being said I don’t want to spend a bunch of time throwing together a 30 minute video for 3 minutes of it to be watched.  I tend to keep it around 10 minutes because that’s what normal people have time for in the day, ergo splitting this into two parts made sense to me.


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